---
title: 'Introduction to Postgres'
sidebarTitle: 'Introduction'
icon: 'elephant'
---

This section of Nile documentation is intended to provide a basic introduction to Postgres and common relational database concepts.
If you are new to relational databases or to Postgres, this is a great place to start. You'll learn the basic data structures, operations, tools,  
and best practices for working with Postgres.

In this section, we will cover the following topics:

- [**Creating and Altering Tables**](postgres/createtable): Tables are the basic building block of a relational database. Tables (sometimes referred to as relations or tuples) are used to store data in rows and columns.
  We will cover how to create tables, add columns and define constraints such as primary keys and foreign keys.
- [**Data Types**](postgres/datatype/): Postgres supports a wide range of data types for storing different types of data. In a table, each column has a data type, and based on this data type, Postgres allocates storage and allows various operations.
  We will cover some of the most common data types and how to use them.
- [**Indexes**](postgres/indexes): Indexes are data structures that improve the speed of data retrieval operations on a table. They help to optimize queries by
  allowing the database to find rows more quickly. We will cover how to create indexes and when to use them.
- [**Joins**](postgres/joins): Joins are used to combine rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them.
  They are essential for querying data from multiple tables. We will cover different types of joins and how to use them.
- [**Views**](postgres/views): Views are virtual tables that are generated based on the result of a query. They provide a way to present data from one or more tables in a structured format.
  We will cover how to create views and use them in your database.
- [**Ecosystem tools**](postgres/tools): Postgres has a rich ecosystem of tools that make it easy to work with. We will cover some popular tools that can help you connect to Postgres and work with Postgres more effectively.
